The Dead Prophet yet Speaking Being A Funeral Sermon Preached at Plaisterers-Hall on the Decease of their late Reverend Pastor Mr. John Faldo By J. Q. The Dead Prophet yet Speaking A Funeral Sermon Preached at Plaisterers-Hall Feb. 15. 1690. to the Church of Christ there upon the sad Occasion of the Decease of their late Reverend Pastor Mr. John Faldo By JOHN QVICK Minister of the Gospel in London Infoelix de quo clamabitur Tollatur impius ne videat gloriam Dei. Vtinam nihil unquam vidisset oculus meus si illâ quod avertat Deus frustrandus est visione Bernhardus de verbis Esaiae Sermone 2do p. 61. The Voice said Cry And he said What shall I cry All Flesh is Grass and all the goodliness thereof as the Flower of the Field The Grass withereth the Flower fadeth but the Word of our God shall stand for ever Isa 40.6 8. LONDON Printed by T. Snowden for Thomas Philips at the Seven Stars in St. Paul's Church-yard 1691. For the very Honoured Madam MARY WILLET Madam THE Death of God's Saints and Faithful Ministers is not at all considered by the careless World Little do they know how much they be beholding to their Lives and what Loosers they are by their Death Lot was a burden to them so thought the wicked Sodomites whilst he lived among them and therefore would fain have rid their City of its best and greatest Blessing But no sooner was he gone than wrath came upon them to the uttermost We have lost of late too many of God's Favourites who stood in the Gap and had power with God to keep off Judgments from us And when as any one of these Men of God Powerful in Prayer and mighty Wrestlers with Heaven are taken from us we may well cry out with the Psalmist Help Lord for the Godly Man ceaseth and as that Prophet seeing his Master Translated into Glory My Father My Father The Chariots of Israel and the Horsemen thereof Blessed be the Lord there be yet some Pious and Devout Souls in our Nation and in this City that when the Righteous perish do lay it to Heart and when the Merciful are taken away do consider that they be taken from the evil to come and are therefore weeping over their own and the Churches weakness which hath lost so many Stakes out of her Hedge so many Pillars out of her Temple so many Buttresses out of her Wall that should support and sustain her so many Sons and Fathers that should instruct cherish and comfort her You Madam have enroll'd your self among the Mourners in our Zion and have been deeply affected with the Deaths of Godly Ministers and private Christians which tho' timely to them being gathered in respect of their Age as Corn in due Season into the Granary yet to us that survive them must needs be very unseasonable Who were it the good will of God so to order it can hardly spare them and would most unwillingly part with them in such a day as this is But it is from the Lord the Sole and Soveraign Disposer of us and of all our Comforts and we must acquiesce Reverend Mr. Faldo whilst living was very Dear to your Godly Parents who are now reaping the Fruit of their Great and Ample Charities and was as much prized and honoured by your self This makes me to address his Funeral Sermon to you and once more to offer that to your Eyes which you twice heard in one day with your Ears I surprize you with the Dedication But that hove and Value you have for all that fear God and for the Ambassadors of our Lord Jesus and which you have abundantly expressed to me the least and meanest of them all an Hereditary Vertue in you moves me to it The Lord give you to be a Follower of them who through Faith and Patience have Inherited the Promises I am Most Honoured Madam Your very Humble Servant in the Lord John Quick Zachariah 1. ver 5. Your Fathers where are they and the Prophets do they live for ever 'T IS an unexpected Providence and undesired that hath brought me into this Assembly and put me upon this Service A very Dear Brother upon whom this Work lay earnestly desired me to do it for him he being necessitated to be elsewhere and I could not well deny him Yet little did I imagine that the last time your Reverend Deceased Pastor and my self were together in another place and familiarly discoursing each with other that it would fall to my Lot to Preach his Funeral Sermon But the Holy Wise Providence of God hath so brought it about that I must do him this last Office of Love which may the Great God in whose Hands are all our Lives all our Times by his Holy Spirit make useful and beneficial to your Souls Your Fathers where are they and the Prophets do they live for ever These words were spoken by the Prophet Zachary We read in Scripture of three Zachary's 1. There was Zachariah the Son of that good High-Priest Jehojada Murdered by his Unnatural and Ungrateful Kinsman Joash King of Judah who ill requited his Father that sav'd his Life by taking away that of his Godly and Zealous Son You may read the Story 2 Chon 24.21 But this was not our Prophet he was Stoned to death about four hundred and twenty one years before the Son of Iddo Prophesied 2. There was Zachariah the Father of John the Baptist but he liv'd about four hundred years after our Zachary 3. There was Zachary the Son of Barachias the Son of Iddo Iddo his Grandfather return'd from the Captivity of Babylon with Zerubbabel Nehemiah 12.4 The Jewish Rabbins say That where the Father and Grandfather of a Prophet are mentioned in Scripture it denotes they were also Prophets It was a great Honour to the Family of the Piso's at Rome that for three Generations successively they had been Princes of the Senate And 't was a very great Honour to Zachary that his Father and Grandfather had been Prophets before him The Spirit of Prophecy seemed to run in his Blood and the Prophetical Office to be entail'd upon him as an Inheritance Yet did he excel his Fathers in true Honour If they liv'd Prophets so did he also They liv'd Prophets but he liv'd a Prophet and dy'd a Martyr He was slain by his ungodly Countreymen for his free Rebuking of their sins between the Temple and the Altar whither he fled for Sanctuary No place so Holy no person so Sacred but the wicked will profane and violate in pursuit of their Brutish Lusts and Malice Matth. 23.35 How long he Prophesied is not certain when he began to Prophecy the first verse of this Chapter tells us It was in the eighth Month in the second year of Darius Nothus He was contemporary with Haggai the Prophet who began his Ministry but two Months before him See Hag. 1.1 The parts of his Prophecy are four 1. Doctrinal in the six first
Rejoice in our Light Doctrine and Conversation Herod heard John the Baptist with delight His Person and Preaching was very sweet and pleasing to him yea and to the Jews also for he was a burning and shining Light and they rejoiced in his Light for a time John 5.35 3. Frequently consult with your Pastors in private about your Souls and your Estate to God-ward When you find inward struglings and perplexities within you as to your Everlasting condition do as Rebekah did go and consult with God by us Ask the counsel and mind of God for you from us There should not be that strangeness that is between Pastor and People but a sweet intimacy and holy familiarity as between Children and their Fathers Come to us with such questions as these Oh! Sirs What shall we do to be saved Is this work that is wrought in me a saving or a common work Inform and direct me that I may not miscarry in Conversion nor be mistaken as to my Right and Title to Heaven and Glory 4. Never let us go out of your Houses without leaving our blessing with you The old Puritans would not let their Pastors go without praying with them and praying for them Vse 3. Are Godly Ministers and Ungodly Hearers both all alike dying Creatures Then look to it that you be not number'd in your Deaths with Godless Hearers O! saith Balaam Let me die the death of the Righteous and my latter end like unto theirs A young Man seeing the happy end of St. Ambrose Bishop of Millain turning to his Boon Companions I would said he fain live with you but die with Ambrose There had been some picks and quarrels between Maccovius Professor of Divinity at Franequer in Friseland and our Pious Learned Ames which made our Reverend Countryman to quit that University But when Maccovius heard of his death he cries out May my Soul when it leaves this Body be where Blessed Dr. Ames is O! Sirs 't will be your happiness to be with all the Holy Prophets Apostles and Evangelists with the Glorious Company of innumerable Angels and with the Blessed Spirit 's of God's Ministers those just men made perfect That Blessed Society which is in Heaven is the sweets of Heaven I shall only change my place not my Company said dying Dr. Preston He left imperfect for perfect Saints The Communion of Saints in Glory next to the Eternal Injoyment of God is the Paradise of Heaven O! Labour for it Quest But how shall we get our selves among them in Death Answ 1. Consider their Faith and the end of their Conversation God hath made your Ministers your Examples both in Life and Death Be you Followers of them as they be of Christ Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report If there be any vertue and if there be any praise thinks on these things Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do And the God of peace shall be with you 2. Let not our Sermons be buried with us in our Graves Let not those hundreds of Sermons you have heard from your two Learned and Faithful Ministers die with them Have them always in remembrance Let them live in your minds and memories 2 Pet. 1.12 15. 3. Let our Word which yet is not our's but God's ever live in your Hearts and Affections O! how do I love thy Word 't is my Meditation all the day long said that Royal Prophet Psal 119.97 103 113 127 140. If you will love and live God's Word do and practise it you will be guided by the best of Counsels and infallibly brought unto Glory 4. Let our Sermons be copied out in your Conversations hold you forth in them the Word of Life unto all that see and observe you This renders God's Word on your part and as much as in you lyeth Immortal and fitteth you for blessed Immortality Tho' the Preachers die yet in this manner God's Word never dies and the Preacher's themselves will seem to be alive I 'le shut up all with these words of the Apostles 2 Cor. 3.1 2 3. Do we begin again to commend our selves Or need we as some others Epistles of Commendation to you or Letters of Commendation from you Ye are our Epistle written in our Hearts known and read of all men For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the Living God not in Tables of Stone but in Fleshly Tables of the Heart And if you are thus the Epistle of Christ and our Ministery unto your Souls is the Ministery of the Spirit of Life you may rest assured that Godly Ministers and Godly Hearers shall be as Saul and Jonathan lovely in their Lives nor shall they in Death be divided I have done with my Sermon yet I cannot but speak something of your late Reverend and now Glorified Pastor tho' by reason the time is past it will be but very little 1. He was a Man of singular Moderation and of a very peaceable Spirit If the Peace-makers are blessed and shall be called the Children of God then Blessed is Mr. Faldo who had an especial hand in the healing of our Breaches which Glory be unto God's Holy Name are to the Mutual Joys of all the Saints now composed and those two great divided Parties in this Nation and that had been so for above Forty years are now once again United and become one and we shall no more for the future hear of those unhappy Terms of Distinction and Separation Presbyterian and Independent but we shall be called as the Primitive Church of Antioch by his Name who hath Redeemed us and Anointed us with his Holy Spirit even Christians 2. He was a stout Assertor of Ancient Primitive Truths in Doctrine and Worship He contended earnestly for the Faith once delivered unto the Saints and was a Zealous Champion for it against the Impious Errors and Damnable Opinions of a Deluded Seduced Party in this Land His Learned Labours Polemical with them Practical and Devotional for the use of others do praise him in the Gate and by these as Righteous Abel tho' dead he yet speaketh 3. He was a constant Labourer and very painful in his Lord's Vineyard and the very first that entered publickly upon it before the last Indulgence by King James the Second And his Great Master found him in his Work There the Gripes and Stone assaulted him which at last killed him Blessed is that Servant whom when his Lord comes he finds so doing I cannot but condole your loss and the Churches loss and pardon these Tears my own particular loss I have been so unhappy as to loose in your two Successive Holy and Reverend Pastors two very Worthy and Dear Friends I pray God my Brethren that as you had a Learned and Pious Faldo to succeed your Blessed Mr. Partridge so you may have another who may Excel them both in Gifts and Graces in all Ministerial Indowments and Pastoral Abilities But my Dear Brethren such a Pastor as Reverend Mr. Faldo is Forty years a making However I beseech you be not too long in making your Choice and filling up your Vacancy Either Incorporate with some other Church or call in speedily another Pastor There be some young Men of great Hopes of Eminent Parts and Piety that are yet unimployed If any one ask why they are idle this time a-day they will reply Because none hath hired us Pray get one of them some One may be had The Lord God of Wisdom Lead Guide and Direct you in your way And give you a Pastor after his own Heart that may feed you with Knowledge and Understanding Amen FINIS
of Death cannot sunder nor sever between them Nay Death befriends them it carries them into Paradise It ushers them into the Bride-chamber it brings them unto the desire of their Souls with whom they long to be and shall be for ever Them that sleep in Jesus God wilt bring with Jesus The Angels carried the Soul of Lazarus into Abraham's Bosom into the presence of God where is fulness of Joy and Rivers of Pleasure for evermore But the wicked are buried in Death They never had any Union with Christ living nor shall they when they are dying They go like Judas unto their own place Acts 1.25 far enough from Christ Heaven and Glory No sooner is Dives dead but the next news you read of him is that he is in Hell tormented Luke 16.23 3. The one dieth as to his Soul and Everlasting Concerns stupid and sensless as Nabal whose Heart grew dead as a stone in him 1 Sam. 25.37 Their Spiritual Lethargy kills them The injudicious World say indeed of the sinner O! how quietly did he die He slipt away like a Lamb. He had no pangs in his Death He was not in bitterness of Spirit as many others But this is an horrible mistake Senslesness is no quietness stupidity of Conscience is not true serenity True tranquillity of Soul in death flows from the sence of God's Love who is reconciled to us in the Blood of Jesus and this none but Saints have who have laid hold of it by Faith and ran to it under distress of Soul as to their only City of Refuge Glorious high Throne Heavenly and Inviolable Sanctuary Quest But you will ask of me Have all God's Saints this inward peace upon their Death-beds Answ 1. No wicked Man hath it at all If the Child of God has it not no Child of the Devil hath it Through fancy and self flattery he may think he has it and so dream himself into a Fools Paradise but the first and next moment after death undeceives him for then he finds himself in the midst in the very Belly of Hell There is no peace saith my God unto the wicked 2. Multitudes of Godly Persons have it tho' many other 's as truely Godly want it and die away without it God's Holy Spirit is a free Agent and as the wind blows where he listeth so he seals and comforts when and whom he pleaseth Our blessed Martyr Mr. Glover met with the Comforter at the stake and cryed out unto his Man Austin He is come He is come The Comforter whom I waited for he is come St. Stephen when he was condemned was so ravished with Divine Joys so that in the midst of a shower of stones which brained him to death he could joyfully commend his Soul into the Hands of Christ and died praying like his Saviour for his Persecutors and Murderers Acts 7.55 56 57 58 59 60. 3. 'T is a most happy mistake for those poor Saints who die fearing their Damnation and yet the next instant after death find themselves as Elijah in the Arms of blessed Angels riding post in those flying Chariots to Glory O! my Dear Friends may you and I be so happily mistaken A Godly Minister upon his Death-bed laught aloud and being demanded the reason of it answered I am thinking saith he how my Blessed Father will be surprized to see me in Heaven whom he once gave over for a Reprobate in Earth and lost for ever So will the fearful desponding Saints be happily mistaken of himself and cry out as Jonas Out of the Belly of Hell have I cryed and thou heardest my voice Thou hadst cast me into the deep into the midst of the Seas the Floods of wrath compassed me all thy Billows and Waves passed over me I was cast out of thy sight but thou hast made me to look again toward thy Holy Temple O! my God thou hast brought up my Soul from the bottomless Pit of destruction Jonah 2.3 4 5 c. I thought I should be damned but through rich Grace I am now saved 4. Sometimes the wicked die under Horrors and Terrors despairing of Mercy their confidence is rooted out of their Tabernacle and they be brought unto the King of Terrors Job 18.14 What think you of Cain roaring out Mine iniquities are more than can be forgiven And my punishment greater than can be born What think you of Saul sadly groaning O! Miserable that I am God hath forsaken me and the Devil will have me this day I and my Sons shall be with him in Hell What think ye of Judas I have sinned I have sinned in betraying my Master He that is the Saviour of the World will be my Judge and Damn me His Innocent Blood that reconciles Believers is like Abel 's to me crying Wrath wrath Eternal vengeance upon me What think you of the Sodomites who past out of one Hell into another O! the frights and scrieches of those filthy sinners burning in their Lusts and running from the fiery Streams and flaming Torrents of Divine Wrath What think you of the Giants of the old World howling and yelling under the deluges of God's Vengeance Job 26.5 What think you of Korah and his Schismatical and Rebellious Grew Had they peace confidence and comfort when the Earth opened her Mouth and swallow'd them up quick and they went down alive into the Pit of Hell Their cries and lamentations frighted all Israel in such a manner that they fled from them fearing lest they should be engulpht in their destruction Numb 16.31 32 33 34. But possibly you will say these were extraordinary Judgments from Heaven and so no Rules for us to walk by Wherefore to silence all queries and clamours for the future pray do but read and consider attentively what the Holy Ghost saith Prov. 14.32 The wicked is driven away in his wickedness driven away how As with a Tempest and a furious Whirlwind before your Pots can feel the Thorns the burning wrath of God shall take them away one by one with a sudden destruction they shall go down to Hell alive quick into the Pit But the Righteous hath hope in his death And so much for Explication and Confirmation of the Doctrine let 's subjoin a word of Application Vse 1. Do the Prophets and Godly Ministers as well as their ungodly Hearers die Then a Wicked People shall not be long blest with their Persons and Preachings with their Company and Labours For 1. They be too good for them The World is not worthy of them The unkind World cries out Take away such Fellows They be not fit to live in it Acts 22.22 And God saith so too but in another sence The World is not worthy of them they be too good for Earth they be Ripe for Heaven meet and fit to be partakers of an Inheritance with God's Saints in Glory Those famous Witnesses Rev. 11.10 11 12. that the World despised for their Sackcloth and Poverty and hated for their Doctrine and Prophesie
and rejoiced at their Death and Calamity sending Gifts to one another and Feasting each other because these their Tormentors were now dead tho' yet 't was but a civil death a Bartholomew Act that disabled them from their Work which was their Life yet the voice of God bids them in the sight and hearing of their very Enemies to come up unto him into Heaven Come up hither my dear Saints my faithful Witnesses Come up unto your God in Glory The World is weary of you That Dunghil is not worthy to have you Come up unto your God in Glory 2. As soon as their Work is done God will call them home After Work Rest after Labour VVages There remaineth a Rest an Everlasting Sabbatism for God's Saints VVe have a little Type and Shadow a poor Picture-pledge and Earnest of it in this holy day of rest O! but when all our VVork is done then an Eternal rest then God will call upon his Servants Come enter into your Rest into your Master's Joy my dear Saints There is a Twofold VVork that God's Ministers have to do 1. A VVork of Conviction and Condemnation This is a very sad burdensome and uncomfortable VVork that instead of Preaching Souls out of their sins we shall only shew them to them make them see them but not leave them Our Sermons shall awaken and startle them but not renew nor reform them we shall give them a Pisgah view of Heaven but they shall nevertheless because of their unbelief never enter into it To some we shall be the savour of death unto death They shall be convinced of their sins hardned in their sins and by those self-same Sermons condemned for their sins Noah that Preacher of Righteousness did thus convince and condemn the old World Heb. 11.7 O! Sirs it affrights me to think I should Preach any of you into Hell and that my self and Sermons should witness to your condemnation in the last day 2. There is a Work of Conversion and Edification God sometimes sends us about this Work this is pleasing delightful and exceeding comfortable Go saith God to Paul and preach at Corinth for I have much people there Acts 18.10 Seedsman saith Christ unto his Minister go scatter the good Seed of my Word in such a Soyl and it shall yield thirty sixty and an hundred fold Fisherman let down thy Net in yonder Pool and thou shalt take many a Fish a multitude of precious Souls O! Sirs if we can but gain you to Christ and as his Ambassadors reconcile you to God we have our ends we have done our Work our Masters Work to our great Joy and Consolation Now when we have done this Work fill'd up our number of Converts as Spiritual Fathers begotten many a Child for God and built them up in Faith and Holiness we shall hear our Great Lord say unto us Well done good and faithful Servants enter into your Masters Joy 3. The sins of their Hearers of their people do oftentimes shorten the days of their Ministers and many Churches are real Murderers of their most Faithful Pastors You will say possibly this is an hard word and who can bear it How do Churches Murder their Ministers Why Sirs 1. Not only by exacting Work from them above their Ability 2. Nor only by denying them due incouragement and a competency for their subsistance Nor yet 3. By downright killing of them in Persecution as both the Zachary's were and an infinite number of other Faithful Prophets of the Lord were But 4. By your sins The sins of the Hearers are our Murderers But what sins I answer 1. Your Non-proficiency by our Ministry You be God's Husbandry and Garden we are to Manure and Dress you you be God's Building and Temple we are to repair beautifie and adorn you 'T was said of Augustus Caesar that he found Rome Brick but left it Marble O! what a comfort will it be to our Souls to have found you Earthly and left you Heavenly To have found you Sinners and leave you Saints We have digg'd about you we have manur'd and drest you studied for you preached to you admonished you in publick and private and what Shall we have labour'd in vain When you have been a sleeping in your Beds and Sins at midnight possibly your Faithful Ministers have been upon their Knees weeping and mourning for you strugling and wrestling with God in Fervent Prayers for your Souls and shall all these Pains and Labours be lost Shall we Meditate and Study Preach and spend our Spirits in Prayer in vain and not for your good Shall the Lord say unto us as to Moses in another case Speak to me no more move me no more in this matter for these Souls for these Sinners They be Reprobate Silver dross and lost Creatures whom the Lord hath rejected for their unprofitableness under all the Means of Grace Brethren this cutts us to the quick and helps to break our Heart Your Eternal Happiness would be our Life The fear of your being undone Eternally is as death unto us it is killing to us 2. The Pragmaticalness of Church-members who take upon them to contradict and controul their Ministers Preposterous courses God hath made us Teachers and our People will teach their Instructors God hath made us Guides and Lights unto you in the way to Heaven but pragmatical Hearers take upon them Magisterially enough to direct dictate and prescribe unto their Ministers what Doctrine they shall Preach and what not The Lord takes notice of these by the Prophet Isa 30.8 9 10 11. Now go write it before them in a Table note it in a Book that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever That this is a Rebellious people lying Children Children that will not hear the Word of the Lord which say to the Seers see not and to the Prophets prophesie not right things unto us speak unto us smooth things prophesie deceits When a Godly Minister had preach'd of Hell unto his Parishioners a great Lady takes him up sharply enough What! Do not you know that my Lord cann't indure to hear speak of death and are you so unwise as to preach of the Torments of Hell unto him Pray learn more wit next and deliver in publick a Doctrine that shall be more edifying and pleasing to him Again Christ hath made us by vertue of our Pastoral Office Rulers in the House of God and committed the Keys of Doctrine and Discipline to us but sorry Mechanicks take upon them to over-rule and correct their Pastors We be Watchers for your Souls and some watch for our failings Jesus Christ hath positively commanded you Heb. 13 7. to remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken to you the Word of God to follow their Faith considering the end of their Conversation And again Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give account that they may do